This study, published by UNICEF and the World Conference of Religions for Peace, draws attention to the roles of faith-based responses to HIV/AIDS in the six African countries it surveyed (Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Uganda). The study argues that, despite some negative perceptions of their role and impact, faith-based organisations (FBOs) are among the most viable institutions at both local and national levels and have developed experience in addressing the multidimensional impact of AIDS and its particular impact on children.

Wealthy nations and international organizations, including the World Bank, spend more than $55 billion annually to better the lot of the world's 2.7 billion poor people. Yet they have scant evidence that the myriad projects they finance have made any real difference, many economists say, reports The New York Times. That important fact has left some critics of the World Bank, the largest financier of antipoverty programs in developing countries, dissatisfied, and they have begun throwing down an essential challenge.

When reports of sexual abuses by UN personnel in West Africa emerged in 2002, Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated a clear policy of zero-tolerance of sexual misconduct by staff. However, allegations of sexual misconduct and gender-based violence by peacekeepers have since been reported in several operations, including Kosovo and, more recently, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Recent press reports have alleged that the UN’s internal watchdog, the Office of Internal and Oversight Services (OIOS), has opened an investigation into up to 68 allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC).

Opposition parties in Angola were preparing to resume talks with the government on holding the country's first post-war general election. The main opposition, UNITA, on Monday said the party was awaiting a response to a letter written to the ruling MPLA last Thursday, calling on the authorities to "speed up" preparation for the poll.

In an effort to ease tensions between the government and civil society, Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa this week exempted an influential coalition of civic and religious groups from having to register. Last month the Forum, an umbrella group comprising the Law Association of Zambia, the Roman Catholic Church and several women's organisation, among others, refused to register with the registrar of societies, arguing that by law "loose alliances" were not required to register and, since its member organisations were all registered, there was no need for it to enlist as a separate entity.

The objective reality in Zimbabwe does not meet the minimum conditions for any election to be considered free and fair. For elections to be said to be free and fair, the pre-election, election, and post election periods must be characterized by the opening up of democratic space, respect of human rights, and the protection of fundamental civil and political rights of all citizens. There can be no free and fair elections where people are forced to vote, denied voting or are systematically denied the vital information to enable them to make an informed political decision, concludes this article on the website of the Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan should bolster initiatives by African leaders meeting in Accra to address the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region as well as the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire, Human Rights Watch said. "Kofi Annan needs to help accelerate African efforts to end these conflicts," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Africa Division. "Both the U.N. and African leaders need to consider sanctions against those who undermine peace agreements."
* Talks on three conflicts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3935117.stm

Governments should sign this protocol as a show of their solid commitment to promote women’s human rights and not plain lip service!

Hilda Mawanda, Kenya

* Sign the petition for the ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of Women online at or through your mobile phone by sending a text message to +27832933934 with the word 'petition' and your name in the message.

The respect and observance of the rights of women is key to the development of Africa. The Protocol does make some progressive provisions and together the men and women of Africa will take the bold step forward. It is high time we own and implement the Protocol but not before States ratify. As partners in development we urge States to ratify as soon as possible to confirm their commitment to the cause for the development of Africa.

* Sign the petition for the ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of Women online at or through your mobile phone by sending a text message to +27832933934 with the word 'petition' and your name in the message.

I really would love to be part of your forum to interact and exchange ideas. I am passionately involved in youth/public health related issues. My wife & I are engaged in a project that selected youth from 10 villages to undergo comprehensive training in farming, life skills, leadership skills etc for 6 months. The trainees will be given certificates. They in turn will organize and lead clubs in their own villages. They will focus on small scale business, farming etc.

We trust that this cycle will impact the other villages to mobilize the youth by imparting proactive thinking skills. The project focuses on challenging the trainees to move away from the reactive thinking paradigm to a proactive, creative paradigm. We believe that "It is better to light one candle than cursing the darkness” - a Chinese proverb. We will make things happen by lighting that "one" candle of hope in spite of all the negative thinking which often cripples people more than the HIV/AIDS crisis these days.

From the slave trade era of the 15th century to the crude oil era of the 20th century, Nigeria's natural resource history has been fraught by a systemic cartel of merchants whose primary agenda was in the amount of natural resources they could garner from the country. In their exploitative ventures they raided whole communities, introduced internecine wars and conflicts, and ignited a raging fire of habitat degradation and fragmentation.

Historical records tell of the fact that the plundering of African natural resources fuelled the industrial revolution of Europe. Energy demands in the 20th century brought on the search for crude oil wells worldwide and Nigeria was not left out. From 1956, when the first oil well was successfully drilled in Nigeria, scrambling for Nigeria's resources by the Europeans took on a new dimension.

The oil boom era of the 1970s saw the downward plunge of the agricultural sector. There was a complete paradigm shift from the nation's then agrarian culture to an oil driven culture, moving ultimately from renewable natural resources to un-renewable resource trade. From the 70s through to the early 80s we witnessed a drastic drop in local food production. Importation rates of foods and finished products increased dramatically and our foreign debt escalated rapidly, bringing the economy to a crisis. During this period, from 1958 to 1983, we recorded $101 billion in estimated oil revenue earnings.

A plethora of environmental problems exist as a result of the oil trade. Communities where certain resources are harvested - in particular oil and gas - bear the impact of exploration and exploitation, while gains are shared to other areas that contribute next to nothing to national oil revenues.

In addition oil communities are impoverished and lack basic social infrastructures and amenities. One region in Nigeria which has borne the brunt of natural resource exploitation is the Niger Delta. This region played a key role in the country's economy in pre-colonial and colonial times and still maintains a primary position in present crude oil trade.

The Niger Delta: The Battlefield For Resource Control

The Niger Delta has featured in global discourse as a region plagued by non-violent demonstrations, violent protests and intra communal wars over resource control. The source and underlying causes of agitation in this region must be clearly understood by the global community in evolving effectual management strategies.

Agitations within this region take root from early colonial trade relations with the British incursion into the area. They made treaties with vulnerable communities, plundered resource capital and introduced a subservient cultural pattern. Communities only benefited by giving-up their farmlands in exchange for ridiculous gifts. In those days, resistance came through such visionary leaders like King Jaja of Opobo and Nana Olomu. These leaders, as recorded by Nigerian historians, led their people in the struggle to rescue their natural economy from the greedy control of the British who had devised a “divide and rule” machinery of control over the people.

Control over the natural resource capital of the Niger Delta people is mirrored presently by the operations of the oil multinational companies, who defraud whole communities of their livelihood sources, paying ridiculous monetary compensation in exchange for a devastated coastal ecosystem.

The oil companies make up the largest industry in the Niger Delta region. Despite this, unemployment levels are still high, especially in the rural areas where oil and gas reserves exist. In this region exist oil well reserves (17.9 billion barrels) and gas wells (3.4 trillion m3), contributing about 80% of federal government revenue.

Despite this vast coastal wealth, GNP per capita is below the national average of US$280. Pollution of coastal corridors and wetlands is a recurrent disaster. Gas flaring has become a notorious pollutant of the local communities of the Delta. Oil spills and gas flaring have destroyed whole fishing communities, reducing needed fishery resources, terrestrial vegetations and compromising the health of local people in and around oil installations.

Nigeria's resource base includes a vast network of rivers, floodplains and a rich rainforest network, with vast deposits of minerals. However about 95% of natural forest cover has been lost to deforestation, leaving 5% contained in the Southeast region. While dams upstream are a constant headache and threat to the rich coastal biodiversity, deforestation ravages the teeming rainforest ecosystem.

The Nigerian Government And The Challenge Of Sustainability

In a country where agriculture accounts for about 40% of GDP and oil production and exports (exporting over 2 million barrels/day) ranks 6th world wide, government's management structure and environmental action plan is essential to maintain balance and reduce abuse. The question here is what has been the role of the Nigerian government in the management of its natural resources?

To attempt an answer, one can say that even though the legal framework and institutional structure for natural resource management is firmly established, it still lacks the strength and drive which natural resource management deserves.

Government response to environmental problems and the nagging problem of unsustainable resource exploitation has been rather slow. Compromises in deals with multinational companies have crippled the implementation of “goodwill” national policies and laws. The management structure at best is fragmentary, and there exists similar government agencies carrying out the same functions, often times leading to conflict between government agencies and stakeholders.

A satisfactory environmental condition would mean developmental projects and resource utilization meet with clearly stated developmental benchmarks, whose implementation is sustainable. For projects to be considered sustainable as contained in Agenda 21 of the Rio declaration three key aspects of development must be integrated into project planning and implementation: economic growth, social equity and ecological integrity.

Historical trends in the Delta have shown that industrial activities in the Delta have negated this all-embracing principle, in the scramble for resources. Indigenous people, their laws and customs have often been sidetracked. Sustainability must therefore be redefined in this region and companies' licenses to operate must be revoked when found guilty. The country does not lack policies and laws, but the gap is in its implementation and policing of resource utilization.

Resource depletion has far reaching multiplier effects and its importance is underscored by communal agitations and high national poverty statistics. It is instructive to evolve stringent measures to “checkmate” the eclipse of our collapsing life support systems. We can't afford to put new wine into old wine skin.

The issue of local content has to do with the active participation of the local indigenous people in decision-making processes. Local people are the best managers, they have over the years evolved methods and approaches in natural resource management that have preserved certain classes of biodiversity and we need to learn from them.

For sustainability, they must be integrated in all developmental issues, especially those that impact on their existence. In ensuring active participation of local stakeholders in project management and development, ideals of Community Based Resource Management (CBRM) can be adopted. A case is in promoting indigenous protected areas. In the Southeast region several lakes and forests exist, designated by local nomenclature as sacred areas. Indigenous laws and customs have protected biodiversity in these areas over the years and we can start by integrating and institutionalizing these areas into our system of protected parks or areas.

True federalism and sustainability can only be obtained by ensuring that the needs and aspirations of local communities are first considered before economic gains. Trade-offs are necessary to maintain equilibrium in developmental conceptualization, and in respect of sustainable development, social equity cannot be overruled, but rather sustained.

Africa and the Way Forward

The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) could through its review mechanism ensure that African countries comply strictly on the issue of indigenous active participation in decision processes. But the question we must ask is: how sincere are participating African countries on moving the ideology of NEPAD forward? Can NEPAD be a panacea to our dependency on western donors, who dictate the tune of our development? Or would we be strong enough as a people to wield the weapon of resource control and management by Africans to the hungry western world?

We must evolve strategic alliances with other African nations to find long lasting solutions for the management of Africa's vast bank of natural resources. The question of capacity building then arises. Capacity building in natural resource management would mean a network of indigenous people who are able to exchange needed information and technology without barriers. In addition would be the function of resource tracking: we must insist on predetermined certification of forest and coastal land goods and services, which could serve as a monitoring device for products obtained from these ecosystems.

My concluding thought on sustainable natural resource utilization and development in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, is in our corporate realization that for us as Africans, our greatest weaponry against the incursion of the developed economics is our bank of natural resource capital.

It's time we as a race refuse the lies of the western world and shun greed and mismanagement of both human and natural resources. We must encourage all Africans to imbibe the culture of proper management of our contested heritage. This must be clearly understood and articulated by the current crop of leaders as they promote the African Union through its NEPAD initiative.

* Eno Deborah Anwana’s major interest is the sustainable management of Africa's vast wealth of natural resources by Africans. Since 2002 Anwana has worked in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria on a MacArthur funded project focusing on the wise use of natural resources and sustainable development. Anwana is affiliated with Nigerian's foremost environmental NGO called The Nigerian Conservation Foundation, a membership based NGO.

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With 10,000 deaths worldwide every day caused by the absence of clean water or decent sanitation, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told an inaugural meeting of a United Nations panel of experts on the issue that they must mobilize funds and raise public awareness to improve the basic living conditions of millions of people. Currently, one person in six drinks unclean water and one person in three does not have access to proper sanitation.

In a bid to encourage refugees and other war victims to repatriate voluntarily and reintegrate into Burundian life, UN agencies are turning their attention to improving the low level of social services, particularly with health care. Three UN agencies and the Burundi government jointly signed a memorandum last week to provide equipment and essential medicine as well as to rehabilitate health centres ruined by 10 years of political crisis and war.

The World Bank has finally debarred Acres International, nearly two years after it was found guilty by a Lesotho court of corruption on Africa's largest dam project. Reacting to the move, Korinna Horta of the US-based group Environmental Defence said, "This long overdue action on Acres is very much welcome, and hopefully signals a more forceful World Bank approach to corruption on its projects. But the fact that a court case in Lesotho was decisive in the limited debarment of Acres appears to be a case of the tail wagging the dog. It remains to be seen if this will lead to more systemic changes in how the Bank approaches corruption."

In the last few years, the number of women who independently migrate as main economic providers has increased. Consequently, their contribution to their country’s and their family's economic development has increased with the sending of remittances. The majority of studies and programmes on remittances have ignored the gender dimension. Furthermore, data related to the sending, receiving and use of the remittances is seldom disaggregated by sex. Remittances are much more than sums of money sent from one person to another. They reflect an intricate combination of dynamics that interact at individual, social, economic and political levels. Click on the link to read more on the web page of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women.

Southern African foreign and defence ministers have approved draft principles to try to ensure free and fair elections in the region at a two-day meeting in Sun City which ended on Friday. The Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections will be forwarded to Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders for adoption at their summit next month.

A last minute intervention by Festus Mogae, the Botswana President, has averted a strike by the country's diamond mineworkers. On Friday last week, 6,000 mineworkers threatened to down tools after union leadership and management of Botswana's two biggest diamond mines failed to reach an agreement on a pay increase. If the action had gone ahead, it was projected that it would cost the country about R40 million a day.

Civil society groups and the opposition in Zimbabwe are calling for a fresh voter registration process to create a new and reliable voters' roll. The move follows last week's announcement by the Chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Reginald Matchaba-Hove, that it 'was impossible, even under new electoral laws, to hold a truly free and fair election next year because of the serious defects in the present voters' register'.

An appeal by former African National Congress chief whip, Tony Yengeni, against what he considers to be a 'harsh and severe' four-year jail sentence for fraud was postponed indefinitely on Monday. Yengeni was sentenced in March 2003 after pleading guilty to defrauding parliament by failing to disclose a near 50% discount he received on a luxury 4X4 Mercedes-Benz. He was acquitted of related corruption charges under a plea agreement with the state.

In his first appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Gaspard Kanyarukiga has entered a plea of not guilty. Amongst other allegations, the 59 year old, arrested last Friday in South Africa, is said to have supervised the massacre of some 2,000 Tutsi civilians taking shelter in Nyange church in 1994 by transporting police and members of the Interahamwe militia to the scene. In total he faces four charges: genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. A date for Kanyarukiga's trial is yet to be fixed.